Search for field references within a Microsoft Access "application"

Question

I have inherited a MS Access "application" and would like to trace all references to one of the fields.

Is there a way to search for the field (all google hits are for querying the table).

NOTE: I am not looking for any SQL help, I'd like something like the Visual Studio right-click -> find all references type thing.

Answer 1

See the Scan and replace utilities section at the Microsoft Access third party utilities, products, tools, modules, etc. page at my website.

Find and Replace is my preferred utility and it's quite inexpensive. There's a free limited version that works too. I've been using this tool for more than a decade. The author has also added some of my suggestions.

If you want a complete tool documenting all fields, etc, etc then you want FMS Inc's Total Access Analyzer 2007

Answer 2

You can also do this without any external tools. MS Access has an option to show all references. You can do this by reight-clicking a table and choose the corresponding menu option.

However, some people have bad experiences with this option so the best thing to do might be to make a copy of the database and turn on the option there. (or just turn it off after you have the results you need).

Answer 3

1. Go to Tools > Analyze > Documenter
2. "Select All" items in all categories
3. Under Options, ensure "code" is checked (should be default)
4. Run the Documenter report
5. Export into .rtf or other text format
6. Search on your field name

This is a good method because it is fast, free, and complete.

• Objects and VBA are both handled. Some design approaches can create points of interplay that are hard to note.
• All aliases are exposed. Aliases come in several forms -- two that come to mind are renaming of columns in a query and (this one is deadly) use of the "caption" property of a table field.